Who said what on the Maharashtra verdict

"Congress Legislative Party meet has to be called and ultimately the Congress President has to take the decision. Vilasrao Deshmukh is a senior leader, colleague and is like an elder brother to me. We will abide by whatever the party decides. The biggest achievement of the Congress government was waiving-off farmer loans. Good FDIs and increased industrial development in the state has also been our achievement. The MNS factor was no issue at all. It did not affect the Congress' performance"
— Congress leader Ashok Chavan to CNN-IBN

"We are not in any race. There is no question of talking about Shinde or I as chief minister. You keep dragging us into this. We are very happy in Delhi. There could be many CM aspirants, but the leader has to be decided by the CLP. we won on a positive note. People have voted for the programme of Congress party"
— Congress leader Vilasrao Deshmukh to CNN-IBN

"The women of Amravati have backed me. My victory is because of them. I have been a Congress worker for 10 years now and have been part of the Congress Youth Committee in Amravati, but the media does not highlight that"
— Congress leader, Rajendrasingh Shekhawat to CNN-IBN

"It was a new experience for us this time. We didn't know that he (Rajendra) will be contesting. He got interested after working for the party during the Parliamentary elections. The people and the party supported him and he won. His opponent who was a two-time MLA and a minister was ruthless and showed no manners. He crossed all the limits of decency in this election. Controversies are a part of political life. It's the weak who resort to such tactics. we are not bothered about them. Rajendra definitely got the benefit of my and his mother's (President Pratibha Patil) political background, but he fought a tough battle and won on his own"
— Rajendrasingh Shekhawat's father and Congress leader, Devisingh Shekhawat to CNN-IBN

"MNS and Raj Thackeray were not the only things that moved Congress government to victory. The state government has done positive things and at the Center the Manmohan Singh Government has done positive work. It's Congress' prerogative to choose the chief minister now for after all, the election was fought under the leadership of Ashok Chavan in the state. Generally we try to bring in the younger generation because we want to build a younger leadership. I don't think it will take so much time. Basically the major partner is Congress and the party leaders have to take their own decisions. We will stand by them"
— NCP President Sharad Pawar to CNN-IBN

"The chief minister will be from Congress. The Congress leaders will be deciding on who will take the post. We will be following the same formula that the Congress-NCP combine has used for the last 10 years"
— NCP Leader, Chaggan Bhujbal to CNN-IBN

"There is no doubt that some damage has been done by MNS, but it's wrong to say that MNS was the only factor. We have to study what the other factors were for keeping us behind Congress party and whether the results put a question mark on Uddhav Thackeray's leadership. But we know that there is no question mark on his leadership because everyone in the party has accepted him as the leader"
— Shiv Sena leader, Manohar Joshi to CNN-IBN

"Shiv Sena is BJP's oldest ally and our alliance will remain, but MNS was a major factor in these elections. Also, several parties have raised concerns about electronic voting machines"
— BJP leader Chandan Mitra to CNN-IBN

"Raj Thackrey and MNS have divided the Marathi vote to the benefit of the Congress. This is an understanding of the Congress and the MNS. If the people of Maharashtra feel that they want the present government despite all the failures, then we accept their mandate"
— Shiv Sena statement to CNN-IBN

"The chief minister's post will remain with Congress. Whoever is the chief minister must carry both the parties together. We have got a clear majority. If someone feels MNS helped us, then someone must also look at the Third Front"
— NCP leader, Praful Patel to CNN-IBN